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Thursday, May 8, 2008

Ducky Daddles Arrive

The ducklings arrived at 8am finally! They must have taken the scenic tour, an extra twenty-four hours to get their little ducky daddles up here.

They should have flown.

They are all fuzzy and warm in their brooder box tonight. I'm sorta tired from getting ready to leave to take Carol down to California. We will miss her. We, the girls and I have become very fond of her. And Dirt will miss his little buddy Matt. This collection of pictures taken by Anna goes out to all those who need a warm fuzzy tonight.

Farm Life

This is me being more organized or just silly take your pick. This section of the sidebar, back matter, is titled Farm Life but I guess you already read that. In it you will find: guided tours, calendars, appendices, indices by date and indices by labels.. Oh, and what to buy me for my birthday, Anniversary, Christmas....

"It is more blessed to give than to receive" and I sure as heck want you to be blessed! You do know I'm kidding, right? Kinda....

Year 'Round At Vicktory Farm and Gardens

A calendar of events and attitudes here at the Farm with a few seasonal concepts thrown in here and there, enjoy. Visitors are welcomed with pie, coffee, a trowel and a smile!

April

No longer hoping for freezing weather! Or snow!! The Propagation House is filling up! Spring flowers are really busting out, lifting spirits and adding to the celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection, it is a great time at Victory Farm and Gardens. Possibilities begin to wane for clam digging.

May

Lilac season, breathe deep! Lots of planting, weeding, planting, weeding. Shearing is in full swing. Sorting things out, decisions being made and remade. Furiously working so that we can get to Camp Vicktory!

United States Constitution PreambleWe the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

June and July

Canoeing, campfires, tracking and exploring are ushered in at the beginning of Camp Vicktory starting on Flag Day. Strawberries come ripe, cherries get picked, raspberries harvested and haying season is here! Hip Hip Hooray! The smells of summer are in full swing, honeysuckle, peonies, lilies, tomato plants, chamomile, hay and the sulfur of Fireworks!

August

The Dog Days of Summer, harvesting and some last ditch sheep shearing, repairing silted ponds, trying not to think ahead and say, "oh, well there is always next year" too much. A time for enjoying family, friends and the motorsickle! Watering, watering , watering. (By the way this is Vicktory Farm's (1985) and Lanny's (1958) shared birthday month, that would be the reason my wish list is tucked in here in the calendar.)

Large Black Hogs, at least a breeding trio - this is really Bet's thing but I am happy to add it on my list, as if it would help being here. Getting these may require a road trip to MO.

Premier One Supply poultry net fence and sheep fence 2 or 3 of each and some fence chargers

Greenhouse

Hothouse as a solor greenhouse attached to the southside of the house. Nice.

Portable Cold Frames

At Least Five Chicken Tractors - okay I'll take three or four

Slide and Negative Scanner

Digital SLR Camera - I'm not taking this off my list and instead I'll narrow it for you Pentax K20D and just a lens or two for now. Really. Honest. My life would be grand if I had one. Okay it's grand without one but then I could take pictures to prove it.

Trim Board For Hallway Got It and a new paint job, now for the Kitchen

September

Labor Day finds us at our annual excursion for the highland huckleberry, we move the 'Tavern' to Iron Creek campground, leaving the Farm in good hands. A time of reflection and evaluation of the agricultural year. Ending with 5 days exhibiting our turkeys at State Fair.

October

Leif Erickson Days celebrating the true discovery of America by Europeans. Feasting on everything Scandinavian and beginning the Viking Adventures that run till Christmas Day. Lots of work on the farm and in the gardens winterizing and planting overwintering things. Occasional escapes to the ocean for clam digging! Oh and I suppose I better mention that it is also Dirt's birthday month.

November

Veterans' day, a service toward and a celebration of our Nation and her defenders. Of course there is always Thanksgiving, we feast for the entire four days of the Celebration of God's Bounty and Grace ending with the beginning of Advent. The farm and garden work is now just the daily routine, the emphasis during this time is baking and cooking for the holidays. Clam digging!

December

All month long we celebrate the Advent of Our Lord ending of course with Christmas! Acknowledging in our feasting and contemplating some of the followers of our Lord who went before us: Sts. Andrew, Nicholas, Lucia, John of the Cross, Stephen, John and Tomas Becket, we marvel at the depths of their faith in Christ that He authors.

January

Christmas continues till Epiphany and Three Kings night, complete with reenactments, stories and Ol' Befana treats - After the holidays we begin to concentrate on pruning, planing and ordering for the Farm and Garden. There's always a chance for clam digging!

February and March -

We hope for freezing weather and ice skating on the beaver ponds. (but in the PNW there are no guarantees that there will be winter weather) We are really scrambling at this time trying to make sure that our year is successful at Victory Farm and Gardens; lots of new babies, lambs and chicks, things sprouting, garden fragrances are peaking out from under the chill... A few special teas thrown in for distractions from the hard work and gloomy grey days. Still possibilities of clam digging!

Note for 2010: wouldn't mind if we didn't freeze up solid again, probably no clam digging, stump digging instead, and busy hardly begins to describe these two months this year!

Who Is Dirt?

Dirt is my husband's nick name. You know fill dirt, well now you know Phil Dirt. I have always called out to him or spoke to him even in public with, "Dirt." This of course received many a raised eyebrow, (but what do I do that doesn't?).

At first the only friends that would play along were the Leonards when they first met us twenty-three years ago, but now most of the friends we have play along and he is known to everyone including our grandboys as Dirt!

After God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he is appropriately everything to me. Without him, following God's leading, I would be nothing. God has used him greatly in my life, and I, for one, am very glad he listens to God.

Where My Girls Are

Blogs I Read

I have removed this side bar item, for a myriad of reasons but mostly because I cannot for the life of me keep it up. I am always forgetting to add the latest blog I found that I love to read.

It really is easy to find lovely blogs and blogespheric friends out there. You're welcome to mine, that isn't one of my points for removing the gadget. You can find the majority of the blogs I visit through their ingenious comments on my posts, or my referencing them in my posts.

This will be up for basically ever, and I needn't worry about it any more.

A Short List Of Things We Shouldn't Believe Because They Are a Lie

That God meets us in certain feast days, or certain days of the week, then and only then can we have a God experience.

That God despises that we have certain feast days.

Even though children can be cool to have they are a big burden

If you are a submitted wife, you are saying that you believe you are less than your husband

That if you trust God, and do as he asks, he is going to make your life miserable

That you have to test drive a relationship before you commit to it

That teenagers are hormonally beyond control and will at some point cause difficulty for their parent(s)

A Short List of Things We Should Believe

That to God, days are the same, no one day is more special than the other, but that doing and holding a day apart is a good way to remember where we have been and where we are going. Just not in a legalistic salvation sort of way.

When our children get married they become one with their spouse, that pretty much makes the spouse our son or daughter as much as the ones we conceived and birthed (or adopted) ourselves. Therefore that whole son-in-law thing doesn't apply at our house.

We come to find incredible freedom when we submit to others and put their interests before ours, it doesn't indicate that we are less. Gal. 3:28. Eph. 5:21 - 6:9 Phil.2:3,4

When we are reconciled to God through Christ, He gives us the strength to conquer all natural tendencies Phil. 2:13,4:13, Gal. 5:22

We can trust God to direct us to our spouse and we don't need to test drive the relationship first. Genesis 24, 29, Eph.5:3

About Me

I'm not an expert on anything, but I enjoy a great many things.
My Husband and I have four daughters, 2 married, 2 at home. Make that 3 married, 1 at home as of Sept. 18, 2010.
We rent a 100 acre farm nestled between Mount Rainier and south Puget Sound. (And as of November, 2009 we purchased 20 acres of the 100 acre farm.) We raise sheep, poultry, flowers, fruits, vegetables, the occasional pig, kittens and puppies.
My husband teaches at the technical college and shears sheep for others locally.
I plant, dig, paint and change things till Dirt gets home. All that planting, digging, painting and changing leaves me lots of room to think, ponder, mull and sometimes write. I mostly think, ponder, mull and write about things of God. I think about what God wants us to live like, how he asks us to live in relation to Him, our spouses, our children, our neighbors, the rest of his Body and His creation.
We love company and we hope you enjoy the sites and sounds of our lives and our thoughts on things. We will try our best to convey the beautiful tastes and smells of the kitchen and gardens, the symphony of a playful family and the culture they live in.